Julie Powell Talks About Break Up & Re-conciliation!

The successful author’s marriage prevails despite the extra-marital affairs of both partners, all described in exquisite detail in her book.

Julie Powell with her husband, Eric Powell.

Renowned blogger, chef and author of books such as ‘Julie and Julia’ Julie Powell has managed to successfully translate her honest retelling of her life all this time, but was it a good decision to write about her extra-marital sex life in explicit detail? Do such honest outpourings strengthen or weaken the marital bond, is something that probably only time will tell.

In 2002, Texan girl Julie Powell hit the big time when she was thirty years old and already much married. After graduation, at the age of twenty four, Julie had married her high school sweetheart Eric Powell whom she met when they were both eighteen years old. Erin Powell is presently an editor at Archaeology magazine.

Through the early years as well as later, Julie has portrayed her husband as being incredibly supportive, loving and encouraging of her. But, there were obviously some issues in their marriage, which led both of them to having extra-marital affairs; things started unraveling soon after the ‘Julie and Julia’ book had been written, all which brought their relationship to a new nadir.

Julie Powell reveals all in her latest book ‘Cleaving’.

All these revelations have come about in her new book ‘Cleaving’, where she has been graphic and sexually explicit about her two year affair with a man and whom she simply refers to as ‘D’ and a ‘college flirtation who returned to her life.’ She has been brutally honest about their sexual encounters and also a casual sexual encounter with a stranger, even as she self-confessedly struggled with feelings of shame and self-hate.

She writes about how Eric, hurt and in rebound also sought the sexual solace of another woman even while both remained committed to their marriage. In 2006, she and D broke up and the couple started counseling. Even though the two discussed divorce and were even separated for a while, they decided that their relationship was more important and strong enough to tide over this crisis. In hindsight, Julie thinks that the affair had a positive outcome wherein both reexamined their marriage and the problem areas therein and rebuild it.

Julie Powell spouts the same ol’ excuse for their marital problems as have so many other couples: though hers was an added mixture of problems of getting married at a younger age and issues with the new found fame and fortune.

Julie calls herself lucky to have a husband amazingly generous and courageous to permit her to publish her memoirs of that terrible time in all detail.